Man-made global warming theory [AGW] says that climate change is caused by the CO2 emissions from the use of fossil fuels. As the human population increases the inexorable need for energy from fossil fuels increases and therefore the level of AGW increases.

AGW is similar to the theory of Thomas Malthus, the 18th century clergyman who thought that human population would outstrip natural resources and that natural calamity would be visited on humankind through disease, starvation and pestilence. Malthus’s theory could never have understood what a person like Norman Borlaug achieved in applying agricultural technology to farming to greatly increase food production or how modern medical technology has saved billions of people.

But Malthus has modern advocates like Paul Ehrlich and science advisor to president Obama, John Holdren. Both Ehrlich and Holdren think there are too many people on Earth; they both think too many people will exacerbate AGW and that natural retribution will be as bad as Malthus predicted.

In their 1977 book, Ecoscience, Holdren and Ehrlich advocated forced abortions and community sterilisation. They also supported a world superagency for control of population and the environment. This idea has underpinned the United Nations approach to AGW and was central to the recent Copenhagen process with the Framework Convention on Climate Change [UNFCCC] solution to AGW based on the UN having governmental status and powers.

Population control and reduction is a view shared by other leading AGW supporters. In Australia Clive Hamilton and Glenn Albrecht advocate drastic reductions in population. Albrecht, a former Newcastle academic now based in Western Australia, thinks that the true sustainable population of Australia should be no more than the Indigenous population which existed before European settlement occurred. Other leading green commentators like Keith Farnish and Finnish philosopher Pentti Linkola also see humanity as a threat to nature, and again their solution is for the population to be severely reduced to a few million living in a non-technological primitive state.

This message, that humanity is bad and destructive, is one that is increasingly informing AGW philosophy and promotion. The ‘evil’ has been extrapolated from the fossil fuels and CO2 to humanity itself. Instead of James Hansen’s coal trains of death and the demonization of CO2 it is now humanity which is the problem.

It is a message which is focused on and directed at children. Al Gore gives special induction seminars to young people where he tells them they know more than their parents; and the EPA’s head, Lisa Jackson, has developed the Environmental Justice Movement based on cadres of children fighting AGW.

The promotion of the Copenhagen conference on AGW was based on advertisements showing children threatened by AGW. Other videos also feature children as victims. Lately, however, the tone of victim has been changed to instead show children as conscious activists and potential eco-warriors.

The threat is palpable; AGW is the cause and the battle to beat it will be ruthless. The most recent video defines the problem and the solution.

The group behind this video are known as 10:10. Their homepage describes their mission as being to cut CO2 emissions by 10 per cent. The homepage is colourfully presented with lots of young smiling faces. The incongruity of the juxtaposition of young, potentially fertile people and the message in their video of culling those people who do not believe in AGW [the “final solution”] has obviously been overlooked by the 10:10 organisation. Irony is not a strong point amongst AGW advocates.

The irony is that AGW as a concept has been driven because it is ostensibly a threat to humanity. But what appears to be really driving AGW is not concern for humanity but a hatred of humanity; misanthropy. Paul Taylor in his book, Respect for Nature: A Theory of Environmental Ethics states: “The ending of the human epoch on Earth would most likely be greeted with a hearty ‘Good riddance!’.”

Biologist David Graber, in a Los Angeles Times book review of Mother Nature as a Hothouse Flower says:

“Human happiness [is] not as important as a wild and healthy planet. I know social scientists who remind me that people are part of nature, but it isn’t true. Somewhere along the line we … became a cancer. We have become a plague upon ourselves and upon the Earth…. Until such time as Homo Sapiens should decide to rejoin nature, some of us can only hope for the right virus to come along.” Perhaps Graber can get together with Prince Philip who wishes “In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, in order to contribute something to solve overpopulation.”

The insidious aspect of this misanthropy is that it is being inculcated to children. What a desolate form of self-loathing we are bequeathing our future generations. The comparison with the 1969 moon landing is stark. On that occasion when Armstrong said "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind", a generation were empowered and inspired.

By comparison what has the great moral issue of our time, AGW, given us; only fear and loathing and an obscene amount of wasted expenditure. It is time for the vilification to stop; it is time for humanity to reclaim its self-confidence and for our children to be no longer used as vicious propaganda tools.

Anthony Cox is a lawyer and secretary of The Climate Sceptics. Joanne Nova is a freelance science presenter, a professional speaker, TV host, radio presenter, author and blogger.

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